September 26, 2000

ASTEROID EROS YEILDS SECRETS FROM TIME
BEFORE EARTH WAS BORN

The asteroid Eros is so ancient it could have witnessed the
formation of the Earth, according to findings from NASA's Near
Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft published
today.

Four scientific papers published in the September 22 issue of the
journal Science represent the largest one-time release of
scientific data about Eros since the mission began. The NEAR
Shoemaker spacecraft has been in orbit around the primitive
Manhattan-sized asteroid since last February.

The four scientific teams publishing this week include the NEAR X-
ray Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (XGRS) team, the Multispectral Imager
and now-silent Near-Infrared Spectrometer team, the Laser
Rangefinder team and the Radio Science team.

The NEAR mission is managed by the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD, for NASA's Office
of Space Science.

The NEAR Shoemaker web site contains the latest results and high-
resolution images and information:
http://near.jhuapl.edu

Information on the XGRS result can be found at:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/GSFC/SpaceSci/solarexp/NEARXGRS1.htm